Monday, June 27th, was the second day of WYSE. This day was mostly spent at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park, or more simply put, The National Zoo. Our day started early with breakfast at 7 am. Scrambled eggs, french toast, and sausage were on my plate while my backpack harbored the essentials for the day ahead.
After an hour long drive from the George Mason University Fairfax campus, we arrived at the zoo. the busses were unloaded and i stood in a crowd of about 250-300 other WYSE delegates and advisors. We were given a warm welcome to the zoo and set off like hunting dogs to explore on our own before we had our break away groups. The small band of Red Hot Tamales i had joined set off towards the cheetah conservation walk. Our wandering led us through many wonderful exhibits including the red pandas, giant pandas, cheetahs, maned wolves, and elephants. I took a quick trip around the bird house and had the opportunity to see some of my favorite animals such as ravens, owls and a cassowary.
After what had only seemed like a couple minutes had passed it was time for our break away groups. I was in the Sloth Bear group and waked to the location eagerly. The session was led by Stacy Tabellario, the animal keeper for the asia trail and giant pandas. She told us the story of one of their three sloth bears known as Remy.
Remy’s story began when her mother had triplets, which is very uncommon for sloth bears. One of her siblings passed away soon after birth so her mother raised Remy and her sibling for a while. Not too long after her other sibling had passed and her mother had abandoned her. This was when the animal keepers stepped in and took her in as their own in a way. Ms. Tabellario along with a few other keepers hand reared Remy from her young age. She was given teddy bears to function as surrogate mothers when the keepers couldn’t be around and she still has a (much larger) teddy bear to this day.
After we heard Remy’s success story we had the opportunity to feed her some mealworms through a tube connecting to her exhibit. Sloth bears feed by sucking insects out of their nests, they are also known to like some fruits and plants. In the wild sloth bears eat up to half a million insects per day!
After the very inspiring and invigorating break away session we had about an hour before we were going on to our panel discussion. At this point i bought some ice cream and had a quick breather. The panel started briskly after and was very educational. The three keepers were asked questions and explained a lot about what they do at the zoo, what’s being done for conservation efforts, and how they are taking care of many of the animals on the property.
I spoke with the reptile keeper, Lauren Augustine, after the panel discussion to learn more about behavior and personality in the animals she takes care of. She explained that every animal has a special personality all their own and this can often be shown when other animals are introduced, or when food is present. Ms. Augustine mentioned research that is being done to test cognitive functions in many reptiles.She also expressed that if more one on one time was present in her line of work, personalities would be much more prevalent. Time like this is short however, because of her long list of mouths to feed.
After a wonderful dinner and color group meeting we were taken into downtown Washington, DC for our monument tour. We first stopped at the White House before looping around to the spacious WWII Memorial. We then traveled to the memorial space of your own choosing, i went to the Vietnam Memorial and respectfully viewed the wall blanketed in the names of those who gave their lives for the country they proudly called home. After i viewed the Vietnam Memorial we had the opportunity to go to the Lincoln Memorial. After photos were taken and respects paid, we headed to the busses to begin our drive home.
I had a great time at the zoo learning about new species and conservation and i loved having the opportunity to see the many historical monuments in DC.
I will be posting an entry featuring pictures from my experiences very soon.
Until next time ^_^
Kaity Mitchell
ZanzaKrumroo 